Fyffes was the first company in the world to use a fruit brand. In 1929, we created our blue label as a sign of confidence in our quality. Over 85 years later the blue label is kept for our very best fruit.

125 years of people and quality

They say that age doesn’t matter, but with over 125 years of experience in tropical fruit we like to think we know a bit about it. We use proven systems that help us to question, control and improve the way we do everything from first planting, to loading and shipping the fruit around the world, right through until it finally leaves our warehouses to go to your local store. Many of the processes that are now standard in the industry were developed by us. But in the end it’s really about our people, many of whom have worked for Fyffes for decades. Their passion (obsession even) for fruit is at the heart of our approach to quality.

How we do things

It’s easy for us to tell you that we’re committed to producing great fruit in the right way, but it’s more important that we actually do it. ALL our farms and those of our partners follow a very rigorous set of standards to help us to deliver fruit produced sustainably under safe working conditions, following fair labor practices, and with minimum environmental impact. It’s not optional, it’s how we work every day, week in week out. And if something isn’t working, we change the way we do it.

For example, as part of our day-to-day operations we do regular on-site checks to ensure that all the farms meet the necessary internal and external working/ labor standards.

Doing it right is also about quality. We know that better farms produce better fruit, so as part of developing long term partnerships with our growers, we support them with training and assistance on a wide range of issues. For example, we help the farmers to meet the standards for organic or Fairtrade fruit. It all helps to improve their businesses, to secure their livelihoods and it supports our passion for great fruit.

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It's all in the detail!

Producing thebest fruit requires an almost obsessive attention to detail. It can be the small things that make all the difference to the quality and consistency of the fruit, like how far apart we plant the small banana plants (6 feet is ideal), or how many ‘hands’ of bananas are on each bush (8 is the target), or what exact temperature the containers on the ships that bring the fruit to North America are set to (56.3°F).

Fruit today - fruit tomorrow

Growing bananas & pineapples demands a long term approach (like wine). Bananas have been grown for decades in places like Colombia and Costa Rica. It’s often the main source of employment. So, for the farmers to have a sustainable livelihood and for all of us to be able to enjoy great fruit for years to come, it’s important that the land is looked after. Here are some projects that we are currently supporting:

Saving water

One of the biggest environmental challenges in producing bananas is water usage – in some areas it requires 16.8 gallons of water to produce a pound of bananas. This needs to change. In Colombia with our partner Uniban, we're cleaning and re-using water to dramatically reduce water use, without a negative impact on quality, cleanliness or safety.

Innovating to help the environment

When we cut the bananas, a sticky fluid (latex) leaks from the stalk. It needs to be washed off before the fruit can be packed, this uses more water. So, one of our experts is experimenting with using a natural algae (that just loves the taste of latex) to remove the latex and save water. Ingenious eh!

Waste not, want not

In Belize they recycle the waste peel from the nearby citrus juicing farms and spread it on the soil in the banana fields, thus reducing the need for fertilizer. We think it’s why our Belizean bananas taste so good!

Carbon Emissions

Our work to reduce carbon usage has been recognized by The Carbon Trust. As an example of what we’re doing, our ripening rooms now use a chilled water system which reduces environmental impact (and ripens the bananas beautifully!)

Did you know that because each ship carries so many bananas (sometimes as many as 50 million) a banana already has a lower carbon footprint than just about any other fruit?

It's all about people

We’ve said it already, but partnership is key to our business, both parties must benefit. We know that if we have strong relationships with growers and growing communities then together we’ll produce better fruit, that’s good for business and good for the growers. The lives of farm workers in the tropics can be hard, but by working closely with our growers and their communities (people who understand the local situation) Fyffes can make a real difference. Community programs improve living standards for workers and the way we work means that people can expect safe and fair working conditions.

Here are a few of our current activities

To be credible, what we do needs the endorsement of respected, independent organizations. We are members of the ETI (Ethical Trading Initiative) and our suppliers are expected to follow the ETI Base Code which is itself based on ILO Conventions (International Labor Organization) which contains detailed provisions on labor standards, working hours etc. External audit teams and Fyffes own auditors regularly visit farms to ensure that these standards are met.

We’ve worked with farmers in Central America for generations (e.g. Belize for nearly 50 years and Colombia for about 40) so over the years we have been able to support numerous community programs . Here are some examples.

Through a philanthropic partnership with UNICEF Ireland, Fyffes is supporting a program to reduce childhood mortality and helping to save the lives of thousands of children in Africa. This is called the “Freddy’s Fyffes Bananas” program and hundreds of thousands of children have been inoculated against polio. The program has recently been expanded from Nigeria into South Sudan.

Our commitment to food safety and traceability

GlobalG.A.P. is an international standard establishing the minimum requirements to be met by growers of fruit and vegetables to ensure safe, sustainable agricultural production worldwide.

Fyffes has more GlobalG.A.P. certified production partners than any other banana company. Working to recognised standards and constantly tracking the way we do things is part of our commitment to give you great fruit produced in the right way.

Making the right things happen

Our strict internal policies and adherence to rigorous external standards guide our approach to working practices, farm development, environmental protection and sustainability. It’s not optional, it’s how we work every day, week in week out. And if something isn’t working, we change the way we do it.

Some of our partners have small, family-run, farms and our people in the tropics can help them achieve the right standards and to get the relevant certification. It’s not a one-off, it’s an on-going commitment to work closely with them – it’s good for both of us!

Our size and expertise means we can do more:

Fyffes and all our partner companies use certified laboratories in North America and Europe to monitor food safety. They test our fruit to ensure it meets all the relevant safety standards.

Information on each box allows us to trace every banana back to the farm it came from.

To minimize our impact on the environment we only use US and EU approved plant protection products as part of integrated crop production.

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Standards and Certifications

Corporate social responsibility and care for the environment define the way we work. We know it’s the least you’d expect. So, in line with our policy for transparency and compliance, we invite independent external organizations to monitor what we do to ensure we keep the highest quality, environmental and ethical standards across all our products, whether conventional, organic or Fairtrade.